Lake Tanganyika Species • 125 gal tropheus tank, substrate

[DJRansome]

Pool filter sand is my go-to substrate for everything. You just can't beat the consistent and just-right grain size.

[ken31cay]

I've tried most and IMO for africans, central and south americans that i've kept, pool filter sand is the best.

[BillD]

I'm in the same position, setting up a 125 tropheus tank,
Sounds like pool filter sand is the best and cheapest choice. Do all brands look the same ? and they come in 50lb bags how many do I need for a 125 gallon tank. How deep should the sand be if all I'm keeping are trophs?

There a re a number of materials used for PFS. http://www.redflint.com/aquarium_sand.htm is one that may be available to you because of where you live. Their PFS appears to be exactly the same as the Aquarium sand. I have some of their 1/8" grain gravel and really like the darker colour.

[BlueSunshine]

Your tap water needs to be quite soft to dissolve any of the calcium in crushed coral, aragonite, etc. This is extremely simplified explanation but it's true. My tap is at 8 and my tanks are the same with or without aragonite. But if you have a tap of 7 then you will see results from a buffering substrate.

This is my understanding too.

[BlueSunshine]

Guess if we are going to dredge up an old thread we might as well go with it.
Here is a pic of one of our tanks with a 50/50 mix of pool filter sand and nature's ocean aragonite sand #1. This is what we like the best. We keep it about 3 inches deep in all of our tanks.